Nuruddin Farah
| Nuruddin Farah نورالدين فارح |
|
|---|---|
Farah in 2010 before a lecture at
Simon Fraser University. |
|
| Born | Nuuradiin Faarax 24 November 1945 Baidoa, Somalia |
| Occupation | Novelist, essayist, professor |
| Nationality | Somalia |
| Ethnicity | Somali |
| Alma mater | Panjab University among many |
| Subject | Nationalism, colonialism, feminism |
| Notable works | From a Crooked Rib, Maps, Gifts, Secrets |
| Notable awards | Kurt Tucholsky Prize, Lettre Ulysses Award, Neustadt International Prize for Literature, Premio Cavour, St. Malo Literature Festival Prize |
| Spouse | Chitra Muliyil (1982-present) |
| Children | Koshin (born 1983) Abyan (born 1993) Kaahiye (born 1995) |
Nuruddin Farah (Somali: Nuuradiin Faarax, Arabic: نورالدين فارح) (born 24 November 1945) is a prominent Somali novelist. He has also written plays both for stage and radio, as well as short stories and essays. Since leaving Somalia in the 1970s he has lived and taught in numerous countries, including the United States, England, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Sudan, India, Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa.
Farah has garnered acclaim as one of the greatest contemporary writers in the world, his prose having earned him accolades including the Premio Cavour in Italy, the Kurt Tucholsky Prize in Sweden, the Lettre Ulysses Award in Berlin, and in 1998, the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature. In the same year, the French edition of his novel Gifts won the St Malo Literature Festival’s prize. In addition, Farah is a perennial nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Farah was born in 1945 in Baidoa, in Italian Somaliland. His father Hassan Farah was a merchant and his mother Aleeli (nėe Faduma) an oral poet. Farah was the fourth eldest boy in a large family. He hails from the Ogaden Darod clan.
As a child, Farah frequented schools in Somalia and adjacent Ethiopia, attending classes in Kallafo in the Ogaden. He studied English, Arabic and Amharic. In 1963, three years after Somalia's independence, he was forced to flee the Ogaden following serious border conflicts.
...
Wikipedia